Books to Improve Your Competitive Position

There are actions and strategies you can adopt to enhance your competitive position. You can develop a business plan. You can read business magazines and make a list of ideas gleaned from the articles you have read. You can go to conferences and see what other companies are doing, and you can speak to other business leaders to pick their brains.

These are all good options, but I think good business books can provide more substantive insights than magazines and conferences.

Although I have written five books, I tend to read a lot of other people's books for ideas that I can apply to the companies I run and advise. The books I like most are books that take a totally different approach to solving a problem, how-to books by experienced professionals and biographies -- not autobiographies. I don't like autobiographies because the CEOs that write them are not very forthcoming about their failures and shortcomings.

Each quarter, I will make recommendations on books that I think can improve your competitive position.

If you are a company leader, you are thinking about three components to success: First, how are you going to build sales? Second, how are you going to differentiate your business from your competitors' to attract and retain customers? Third, how are you going to attract and retain the right employees that will help you succeed?

Here are some of the books I think you should pick up to improve your competitive position.

How to Recognize and Reward Employees, by Donna Deeprose. Retaining employees is critical to long-term success. How you reward those employees will determine whether you are able to keep the most-talented people. This book provides ideas and ways to motivate employees through actions, compensation and written and vocal praise.

Your Attention Please, by Paul Brown and Alison Davis. Written communication has become more important now than ever before because of businesspeople's high reliance on email and Web sites. This book provides advice on how to improve written communication to attract customers, prospects, referral sources and the media, and offers tips to motivate employees.